Waterloo Street is in perilous state
I have lived in Waterloo Street since 1992. It is a very narrow one way street with equally narrow pavements and the road layout has been unchanged since 1957.
There are now issues with the street surface, road markings and signage exacerbated by the closure and million pound pedestrianisation of Princess Victoria Street from where it joins Clifton Down Road to The Mall. I might add there are still concerns on how this scheme was forced upon largely unwilling residents nearby and its appalling effect on traffic flow through the village.
We regularly see large vehicles in the space between The Mall and Waterloo Street illegally ‘U’ turn and proceed back down Princess Victoria, which is, perhaps surprisingly, still two way, or drive up the Mall. Needless to say there are no known prosecutions for doing this as police presence in Clifton is almost unknown.
Returning to the other problems in Waterloo Street. Exiting is often difficult due to illegal parking at the junction with Portland Street and enforcement is sporadic and generally poor. There are ‘No Entry’ signs, one currently buried in scaffolding. There exists a faded ‘No Right Turn’ sign, but because Portland Street itself is so narrow it has been knocked sideways by heavy vehicles and has been in its current useless state for many years.
The very worn road markings only relate to turning out of Waterloo Street and particularly since the pedestrianisation scheme there is a constant flow of ‘confused’ vehicles and ‘L’ plated delivery drivers and cyclists driving down Waterloo Street against the one way system.
With only one very narrow pavement and currently two lots of illegally narrow scaffolding most pedestrians walk in the road leading to a very dangerous situation particularly to the many children using the Scout premises at night.
It is also the case that the pavement and road surface in Waterloo Street are in a perilous state and to my certain knowledge nothing has been spent on them except for occasional patching for over 40 years. The road markings delineating parking spaces and double yellow lines also mostly no longer exist.
One is bound to ask who is responsible for allowing such a poor thought out traffic scheme to exist in Clifton, and who is responsible for allowing excessive traffic to use Waterloo Street and to allow it to get into such a perilous and dangerous potholed state.
Don Shapland,
Clifton